Bernie Madoff associate sentenced to 10 years in prison, ordered to repay $155 million

Disgraced stockbroker Bernie Madoff's portfolio manager was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday and ordered to pay back $155 million.

Daniel Bonventre, 67, who worked at Madoff Investment Securities, was sentenced in a New York federal court. His sentence comes six years after Madoff, who ran an elaborate Ponzi scheme that bilked $17 billion from investors, was was sent to a North Carolina federal prison for 150 years.

U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ordered Bonventre to forfeit $155 million for fraud associated with the Ponzi scheme.

"I was used by the ultimate con man," Bonventre said before his sentencing, the Associated Press reported.

Bonventre, along with four additional associates, was found guilty in March of aiding Madoff. Those associates include Madoff's secretary, Annette Bongiorno, and Madoff's computer programmer, George Perez, who are set to be sentenced Tuesday and Wednesday. All of them had asserted their innocence during trial.

In court filings ahead of Bonventre's sentencing, 74-year-old victim Norma Hill recalled how she lost much of her savings as a result of Madoff's scheme, according to USA Today. Hill noted that the money was going to pay for her granddaughter's college tuition. Instead, her granddaughter will graduate with thousands of dollars in student loans.

"I will no longer be able to help them," wrote Hill, who lives in upstate New York.

Many Madoff victims have come forward since the scheme was made public in 2008. At the time of Madoff's sentencing, Peter Moskowitz, who lives in Corona, Calif., said his retirement was marred forever.

Since Madoff was sentenced, his son Andrew died of cancer in September and his oldest son, Mark, committed suicide in 2010. Neither were ever charged with a crime related to their father's scheme. Madoff's brother, Peter, pled guilty to multiple counts relating to the crime.